ABSTRACT
AN AWKWARD ASSIMILATION The publication of The Origin of Species in 1859 brought about a revolution in the natural sciences. Charles Darwin was certainly not the first to argue against the "fixity [of species]" theories by asserting that species undergo transformations. Nevertheless, Darwin's views caused repercussions that go beyond the implications of the ideas of other transformists, such as his grandfather Erasmus Darwin or Jean-Baptiste Lamarck. Darwin, although exclusively a natural scientist, found his message trumpeted in the social sciences mainly through Herbert Spencer's contributions. Over time, Darwinian and Spencerian theories were assimilated one to the other.
